PUBLIC speaking teams from St Nicholas Catholic High School, The County High School, Leftwich and Sir John Deane’s College impressed judges in a Rotary competition.

They won places in the district finals of the Rotary Youth Speaks Competition, which is organised and promoted by Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland.

It is aimed at offering young people the experience of speaking on a public platform as a member of a team, and is divided into intermediate and senior categories.

There are local heats, followed by district competitions and regional finals, culminating in a national final in May 2015.

Each team member takes the role of chairperson, speaker or offering a vote of thanks, and are allotted a time in which to perform their role, two minutes, six minutes and two minutes respectively.

The Northwich heat was organised by Northwich Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Northwich Vale Royal, and was held at Mid Cheshire College.

Two teams from each section won spots in the district finals, The County High School, Leftwich, and St Nicholas Catholic High School coming first and second in the intermediate category.

Sir John Deane’s College won the senior section, with St Nicholas coming second.

The winning County High School team of Harry Dooley, Kieran Baddeley and Samuel Flower spoke on ‘Soap Dispensers – Friend or Foe?’, and sexism was the topic for the intermediate St Nicholas team of Ellie Nancarrow, Jessica Leigh and Amy Benson.

The north-south divide was the subject chosen by the Sir John Deane’s team of Emily Mahon, Emma Crosby and Thomas Ward, and the senior St Nicholas team of Ruth Armstrong, Jess Gordon and Olivia Doherty spoke on ‘the watchful eye of the media’.

UCAN entered teams in both sections, speaking on ‘Rules are there for a reason’ and ‘Pinocchio parents’, the Hartford High team’s topic was ‘The Great War – the importance of remembrance’ and the second County High School intermediate team spoke about ‘mod con misery’.

The intermediate section was judged by Rotarian Val Godfrey, Paul Allanach, head of history and politics at Sir John Deane’s, and Philip Andrews, former head teacher of Middlewich High School.

The senior competition judges were Rotarian David Seddon, John Hill, president of Warrington Speakers Club and local businessman John Kerrigan.

Prizes were awarded by Dr Garnet Ronander, the president of Northwich Rotary Club.